Will Ramsey meets Royal Horticultural Society award winner Suzie Nichols, whose talents as an artist inspire her approach to garden design . . .

Suzie pictured at her Hull home with examples of her latest oil paintings

It’s hardly a day for gardening. The rain patters off the eaves of Suzie Nichols’ Salisbury Street home in Hull and collects in deep puddles along the Avenues. For this landscape designer, though, the dismal weather is a minor distraction. As with Suzie’s approach to life, it’s more about the outlook.

After 12 years as a primary school teacher, Suzie decided to rethink her career. And, in part, it was down to the challenge that awaited in the back-garden of her Victorian terraced property.

“It was a wilderness, it was completely overgrown with periwinkles,” she recalls with a smile. “Ground Force was on television at the time and I decided to have a go at it myself.

“I basically started again, although there was a large pear tree and a few other mature trees which I could work with.

“I looked at getting some shady plants and then put a decked area in. It started off on the back of an envelope and progressed from there as  I came up with ideas.

“A lot of friends came out during the summer to help us, so we got the basics done – with the offer of cups of tea and takeaways.”

That summer inspired her to start on an HNC in garden design at Bishop Burton College, near Beverley, where she studied from 2002 to 2004.

“I wanted to do something a bit more creative – though there was some scope for that with the job,” said Suzie, who continues to do some supply teaching during the quieter winter months.

“I wanted to do something which was more for me.”

Today, Suzie is helping others to rethink their lives, by redesigning the space outside their homes.

“People are seeing more and more the value of their gardens – what they can get out of it in terms of improving their quality of life,” she said.

Her office, on the top floor of the home she shares with her partner, software engineer Peter Stensones, is packed with neatly-rolled plans. On the drawing board in this brightly-lit space, she sketches the finished look of the garden, alongside working out detailed planting plans.

Suzie Nichols ponders the changing seasons in the garden of her Hull home . . . above, on a cold, drab, February day and, right, as plants respond to warmer weather

Having taken a soil sample at the garden, she can work out the acidity of the soil and which plant varieties will flourish.

“It’s just like a recipe,” Suzie said; the analogy is a fitting one for a discipline that touches on both art and science.

Having graduated in maths from the University Of Hull, Suzie, a native of Kettering in Northamptonshire, is keen on mixing the disciplines.

She loved art at school and continues to draw and paint in her spare time. In her kitchen, a large cityscape of Istanbul is nearing completion, and she is aware of how her job mixes the elements.

“There’s quite a lot of maths involved,” Suzie said. “There’s a spatial awareness, which is a mathematical thing, so it is partly science, partly art.

“You’ve got to be quite rigorous with planning things – it is very meticulous. It can’t just be a beautiful garden, but leave the client no room to push a barrow around.”

There’s also the skills from her teaching days which she can draw on. “It’s about being able to communicate ideas to people – explaining what you want to get over,” Suzie said.

“And you have to be very organised – it all depends on me. While it’s quiet in winter, it tends to get very busy in the summer months. It can get hectic.

“As soon as the sun comes out in spring, that’s when you get the phone calls.”

Her work is mostly within the East Riding, though she has redesigned gardens for clients in Rotherham and for friends of her family in Northampton.

And while Suzie’s parents were initially doubtful about her change in direction, her first success – a Royal Horticultural Society Silver Medal at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show – helped soothe any worries.

“At first they were a bit sceptical,” said Suzie. “When I won that competition, it was ‘Ah yes, you must take after me!’

“That helped. They were wary of me giving up a full-time job. They are happy now.”

The plans for her garden which won a silver medal at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court show

That first success, achieved in 2003 while Suzie was still studying at Bishop Burton, banished any doubts. Her four metre square design – Essential Elements – took the silver in the small gardens section.

It was built by a landscaping team from Richmond over the course of a week, with Suzie’s help. “There was a little shot of me on the TV program, looking fractious!” she said.

“But it was exciting to see behind the scenes, and to see people like Michael Caine and Ringo Starr walking around. Winning the medal was a big confidence boost.”

Her designs have gone on to win further awards at the Harrogate Spring Flower Show, with bronze and silver gilt medals.

But the real excitement lies in seeing her completed designs. “The best bit is when what’s been in your head – and then down on paper – is there for real,” she said, as she leafed through a series of her designs.

The big challenges remain in people’s expectations, particularly from the speedy make-overs so beloved by TV.

“That can make things tougher,” she said.

“People get the view from TV that it doesn’t take long to design and build a garden – when the process is several months.

“Things change, designs are altered and refined. You want to get it right, it’s not an instant fix.”

But she loves the work and has no regrets about  the change.

“I’m still doing a bit of teaching – so it’s a happy medium,” she said.

What then, I ask as we walk through her garden, would she say to others considering changing their lives? “Give it a go,” she said.

“If you are in a job and you’re not really happy with it, then you’re counting the years until you retire.

“There’s more to life than that.”

For more information about Suzie Nichols' garden design work, call (01482) 449802